MONTREAL — A bizarre run-in involving vacationing Quebec police officers in Mexico over the weekend resulted in one of the officers suffering severe head trauma and being airlifted back to Montreal on Thursday.
Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafrenière told CTV Montreal's Tarah Schwartz that the incident may have even involved members of the local organized crime scene.
The eight police officers – six from the Montreal police and two from the Sureté du Québec – were in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen when three of them decided to go to a bar in nearby Cancun on Saturday night.
While there, one of the officers went missing, and the other two officers figured he must have gone back to the hotel.
When they got back to the hotel they saw that the officer was not there, and when they returned to the bar they found the officer unconscious with severe head trauma, Lafrenière said.
"The Mexican authorities believe it was a bar fight, that's the first possibility, and it's still a possibility," Lafrenière said. "But it's barely a possibility."
Police feel a more likely scenario was that the officer, a four-year veteran of the Montreal force, had an encounter with a member of a biker gang who recognized him and targeted him for that reason.
The officer was still unconscious in hospital Friday, so he was unable to assist police in shedding some light on the attack.
Police say they are waiting for a possible suspect in the case to come home from Mexico to question him on the incident.
